Saudi Arabia is participating in the 26th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 26) United Nations Conference on Climate Change, in Glasgow, UK. The Kingdom's participation confirms its keenness on climate change and environmental protection and is consistent with its transformation program stated in the Kingdom's Vision 2030. During its presidency of G20 last year, the Kingdom consolidated its leading role towards common international issues and contribute to the protection of the planet. This resulted in the adoption of a special declaration on the environment to ensure a sustainable future that limits environmental degradation, preserves biodiversity, sustainable use, and repair of natural resources preserves the oceans, promotes clean air and water, tackles natural disasters and extreme weather events, and climate change. Stemming from its pioneering role in preserving the climate and supporting the international community's efforts in addressing the main challenges facing the environment, the Kingdom hosted the launch of the "Saudi Green Initiative Forum", and the "Middle East Green Initiative Summit" from 23 to 25, October 2021, in Riyadh, which were announced by His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Crown Prince and Deputy Prime Minister late last March, and enjoyed a great global interaction. The Kingdom also announced its plans to launch the national program for the circular carbon economy, calling on other countries to unite ranks to achieve the objectives of this program which aims at addressing climate change while continuing to develop the economy and enhance human well-being. The (COP 26) summit, in which 190 countries, as well as wide sectors of interested official and private organizations and institutions, are taking part, aims to achieve four goals, namely obtaining ambitious pledges from all countries to adopt steps to reduce carbon emissions by 2030 to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement, through four axes. These include accelerating the phase-out of coal use, reducing deforestation, accelerating the transition to electric vehicles, and encouraging investment in renewable energy sources. It also aims to encourage joint action and urge the most affected countries by climate change to "adapt to protect communities and natural reserves" by protecting and restoring ecosystems, in addition to building warning systems, resilient infrastructure, and agriculture that help avoid loss of life and property as a result of natural disasters resulting from climatic influences. To achieve the two goals, mobilizing funding comes as the third pillar in the objectives of the COP26 summit, where the commitments of the developed countries to provide $100 billion annually will be reviewed; to finance climate projects, in addition to emphasizing the role of international financial institutions in financing the public and private sectors to help reach net-zero emissions by 2050. The fourth goal of the Summit is to activate joint action to implement the Paris Climate Agreement by finalizing the Paris Rules Book (the detailed rules that make the Paris Agreement valid) in addition to accelerating work to address the climate crisis through cooperation between governments, companies and the civil societies.
